1. Field of Use
The invention pertains to a method and apparatus for evaluating recorded data of a driver's operation of a motor vehicle. The invention is not limited to trucks and automobiles but includes all powered equipment such as boats, airplanes and railroads. The invention utilizes time marked data that can be correlated with information from separate databases, particularly data that is also time marked. The recorded data may facilitate the vehicle owner monitoring the use of the vehicle by others, e.g., employees, automobile renters or family members, e.g., teenage drivers. The recorded data may also provide an objective behavioral data collection system for third parties, e.g., life and health insurance companies, lending institutions, credit rating companies, product and service marketing companies, potential employers, to evaluate an individual's behavioral characteristics in a real life and commonly experienced situation, i.e., driving a motor vehicle.
2. Prior Art
Several commercial mechanisms are available on the market that provide means to monitor vehicle use. One example is the Alltrackusa product that relies on a global positioning satellite (GPS) system to track vehicle operation. Such systems employ a calculating methodology to determine speed and acceleration by using the position differential implied by the GPS. Conversely, Davis Technologies markets the CarChip product which is a passive OBD data recorder for hobbyists and car enthusiasts who want to record their engine performance. The shortcomings of the Alltrackusa “GPS only” application is that actual speed information is not available during intermittent losses of the GPS signal, which are frequent. This limits the product's usefulness for creating a complete dataset suitable for developing a useful and objective driver safety ratings. The shortcoming of the CarChip product is that the unit does not provide GPS capability and the target market is for car enthusiasts who want to monitor engine diagnostics. Both existing technology developments have the inherent shortcoming of local data storage and reporting. This feature limits the usefulness of the data and does not allow for the development of an independent rating system.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,064,970, assigned to Progressive Casualty Insurance Company, discloses a method and system for determining the cost of automobile insurance based upon monitoring, recording and communicating data representative of operator and vehicle driving characteristics. The system includes use of a wireless up-link to a central control station to communicate “triggering events”.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,064,970 defines a methodology for private insurance quotes based on endogenous driver variables that are acquired from the customer or collected by the insurance company. U.S. Pat. No. 6,064,970 does not teach an apparatus and business process that allows customers to voluntarily create datasets that are then objectively interpreted by a third party and converted to objective safety ratings, much as credit payments or delinquencies are converted to an objective credit rating, or company debt histories converted to a bond rating. This distinction is vital in order to promote the adoption of driver monitoring technology and guarantee that it is utilized in a manner that promotes the most societal good, rather than simply being the exclusive purview of one company's insurance premium pricing structure.
Other devices and methods are disclosed in published patent applications. Included is the application Ser. No. 10/764,076 assigned to Progressive Casualty Insurance Company filed Jan. 23, 2004. Another device is disclosed in a published application Ser. No. 10/281,330 assigned to Davis Instruments, and filed Oct. 25, 2003.
The existing systems and devices also ignore the profound behavioral characteristics exhibited by drivers in operating motor vehicles, e.g., aggressiveness or patience, caution or recklessness, compliance with laws, etc. These characteristics are relevant to each individual's behavior in other situations including performance of job duties, behavior in stress, and meeting obligations owed to others. These behaviors cannot be ascertained unless the information is uploaded to a central server to create a comprehensive database for comparison and development of useful profiles. Existing technology applications do not centrally store the data and interpret it in context to provide a useful service to society.